Christina's Story: Newspaper Articles

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Christina's Story - Newspaper Articles

The following links take you to various articles in Christina's story as it appeared in the South Florida media.

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*In Loving Memory Of* Christina Diane Holt May 23, 1987 - September 16, 1994 "Beautiful Child who has found love from the angels...RIP..."	(Not her actual headstone)
These pages contain all of the articles from the Palm Beach Post and The Sun-Sentinel throughout the years.

Zile Breaks Silence (1/7/97)
Manslaughter Plea Ends String Of Child Death Cases (1/15/97)
Judge: Polk County To Get John Zile Appeal (1/17/97)
They All Died Young, But Spare The Others (1/23/97)
Once Again, Search Leads Back Home (2/19/97)
In Lieu Of Flowers, Send More Help (3/8/97)
Crosses, Gifts Mark Tragedies (3/8/97)
In Court (4/8/97)
Contempt Conviction Is Upheld (6/12/97)
Judges Uphold 'Herald' Reporter's 70-Day Sentence (6/12/97)

ZILE BREAKS SILENCE
Sun-Sentinel
January 7, 1997
Author: Staff Reports

Convicted killer John Zile finally broke his silence in an interview with a television reporter in which he reiterated his innocence and expressed remorse for the death of his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Christina Holt.
During an hourlong interview from the Palm Beach County Jail with a reporter from WPEC-Channel 12 News, Zile said he misses Christina.

"I love children; I have always loved my own children," Zile said.

Zile said he has suffered fear and remorse since Christina's death on Sept. 16, 1994. Christina suffocated after being beaten by Zile. Zile and his wife, Pauline, did not call paramedics. Instead, they hid the body in a closet for four days, then secretly buried her while claiming she had been snatched from a restroom at the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop.

"We told a lie. We had to maintain it," Zile said.

Zile and his wife, Pauline, have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Zile recalled Christina's death: "I spanked her on the night she died. She went into a seizure. She was staring right through me."

He said he tried to revive her with CPR.

"No doubt about it, I should have called 911," he said. "I panicked. I didn't know what to do until it was too late.

MANSLAUGHTER PLEA ENDS STRING OF CHILD DEATH CASES
Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
January 15, 1997
Author: CHRISTINE STAPLETON, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Rosa Self quietly pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Tuesday, closing the last of seven local child death cases filed following in the furor over the two young South Carolina boys killed by their mother, Susan Smith, in the fall of 1994.

In the 27 months since the Smith case, as well as that of John and Pauline Zile, first made headlines, eight children have been buried, two pathologists lost their jobs and three parents were sentenced to life in prison in Palm Beach County. Cumulatively, the cases changed the way police, prosecutors, pathologists and defense attorneys handle child deaths here.
Prosecutors don't like to lump together these seven cases. They deny that the South Carolina case influenced their decision to charge eight local parents and baby sitters with first-degree murder and another sitter with third-degree murder. But in most cases they settled for far less the the original first-degree murder charge.

"Susan Smith has nothing to do with this," said Scott Cupp, the county's chief child homicide prosecutor. "I don't think you can look at it as a whole. You have to look at them individually."

Prosecutors won first-degree convictions in only two of the cases: John and Pauline Zile of Riviera Beach, both serving life sentences for the death of Pauline's 7-year-old daughter, Christina Holt; and Clover Boykin of Royal Palm Beach, who pleaded guilty to killing her own son and another child she cared for.

Prosecutors were forced to drop charges in two other cases because of problems with autopsy results. Dennis Rhoden of suburban Lantana spent four months in jail on a first-degree murder charge before a second autopsy on his girlfriend's 6-year-old son showed that asthma could have contributed to the boy's death and the case was dropped. Jacqueline Caruncho of Palm Beach Gardens faced a third-degree murder charge before it was dropped when her attorneys uncovered an incompetent autopsy and evidence that the baby she had been baby-sitting died of sudden infant death syndrome.

High emotions

"Child-abuse cases are easy to get emotional about but there's always a danger that that emotionality will play a part in the charges brought," said Richard Lubin, Car-uncho's attorney. "We all know that child abuse occurs and that adults kill children but we also know that nowhere are there more false accusations than in the area of child abuse."

Certainly, these are not the first child death cases filed in Palm Beach County. A year before the Smith boys died, Jessica Schwarz of suburban Lake Worth was charged with second-degree murder in the drowning death of her 10-year-old stepson, Andrew "A.J." Schwarz on May 2, 1993. Convicted on the same day - April 11, 1995 - that Pauline Zile was found guilty of killing her child, Schwarz was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his death.

But Susan Smith seemed to have set off a bizarre, coincidental string of child deaths in Palm Beach County the October 1994 day she sent her car, with her 1-year-old and 3-year-old sons strapped inside, rolling into a South Carolina lake in a vain attempt to reclaim a lover.

Awful coincidence

For nine days she pleaded with a phantom carjacker to bring back her babies. About the same time in Palm Beach County, Pauline Zile also was looking into television cameras and begging an imaginary kidnapper to return her daughter, Christina Holt. Several weeks earlier, however, Mrs. Zile's husband had taken his stepdaughter's body from a closet in the family's apartment and buried her in a shallow grave.

Then on Nov. 2, 1994, Palm Beach County prosecutors arrested Boykin, a 19-year-old mother who, like Smith, confessed to killing two children. The following day Smith was arrested in South Carolina and charged with murdering her two sons.

The next day, Nov. 4, 1994, Palm Beach County prosecutors charged Pauline Zile with first-degree murder and announced they would seek the death penalty against her for failing to protect her daughter from John Zile.

Six days later, on Nov. 10, 1994, the 2-year-old adopted daughter of Timothy and Paulette Cone died when a 14-pound homemade lid on her crib slammed shut and pinned her to the railing. The Cones were arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Seven months later a jury cleared the couple of the murder charge but found them guilty of culpable negligence.

Hysteria affects cases

On Dec. 22, 1994, Tiffany Greenfield died while Caruncho was baby-sitting. A month later, Joanne Mejia of suburban West Palm Beach called 911 and said her 8-month-old son had stopped breathing.

Prosecutors said Mejia's baby died of shaken-baby syndrome. Mejia later pleaded to third-degree murder and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Prosecutors would have agreed to a lesser sentence if she admitted to killing her son. Mejia refused.

"In these kinds of cases we had a hysteria," said Mejia's attorney, Gary Israel. "People were being charged when the evidence wasn't sufficient."

In July 1995, Dennis Rhoden was charged with first-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend's 6-year-old son. Rhoden spent four months in jail before Assistant Public Defender Peggy Natale asked for a second autopsy. Natale's experts concluded the child suffered from acute asthma, which they say contributed to his death. Prosecutors dropped the charges.

Self, 35, of Greenacres faced a first-degree murder charge for the April 3, 1996, death of a 3-year-old niece she was trying to adopt. Prosecutors said Self slapped the child in the bathtub, causing her to slide underwater and drown. Na-tale, also Self's attorney, hired experts to review the autopsy findings. Her experts found that the child had a "raging case of pneumonia" and an infection in her heart that could have contributed to her death, Natale said.

On Tuesday, Self pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Circuit Judge Marvin U. Mounts Jr. initially agreed to a weeklong furlough so Self could spend time with her mother before going to prison. However, that request was postponed at least until today after jail officials said they heard Self threaten to kill herself if she was sentenced to prison, Natale said. Self is not on any medication and has not tried to kill herself in jail, Natale said.

Child-homicide cases often hinge on the testimony of medical experts and prosecutors hope they won't have to repeat the mistakes made in recent cases. The medical examiners who handled the Rho-den, Caruncho and Self autopsies all have left the office.

The incoming deputy medical examiner, Dr. Jacqueline Martin, said she intends to participate in a "rapid response team" of police, prosecutors, and child-abuse specialists who will immediately respond to a suspicious child death.

"In my experience you can pay people to say whatever you want and you can go to great expense to find people to say what they saw or didn't see," Martin said. "My only duty is to say what I observe in an autopsy.

ADULTS KILLING CHILDREN

SUSAN SMITH

South Carolina mother charged with first-degree murder for the Oct. 25, 1994, murder of her two young sons. Smith was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

JOHN AND PAULINE ZILE - Charged in November 1994 with first-degree murder for the Sept. 16, 1994, death of Pauline's 7-year-old daughter, Christina Holt. The Ziles, of Singer Island in Riviera Beach, were both convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

CLOVER BOYKIN - Charged with first-degree murder for the Oct. 27, 1994, death of her 5-month-old son and the Nov. 16, 1993, death of an 8-month-old baby she was baby-sitting. Boykin of Royal Palm Beach pleaded guilty to the murders in February and was sentenced to life in prison.

TIMOTHY AND PAULETTE CONE - Charged with first-degree murder in the death of their 2-year-old adopted daughter on Nov. 10, 1994. A 14-pound homemade lid on the baby's crib slammed shut, pinning the child to the crib's rail. A jury cleared the Cones of Lake Worth of the murder charge but found them guilty of culpable negligence.

JACQUELINE CARUNCHO - Charged with third-degree murder after the 4-month-old girl she was baby-sitting died. Prosecutors said the child suffered from shaken baby syndrome. Prosecutors dropped the charge against the Palm Beach Gardens woman after defense experts concluded the child died of sudden infant death syndrome and the county's associate medical examiner admitted he could have made an error. The associate medical examiner is no longer with the office.

JOANNE MEJIA - Charged with first-degree murder after she called 911 hysterical and said her 8-month-old son had stopped breathing on Jan. 21, 1995. Prosecutors said the child died of shaken baby syndrome. Mejia of suburban West Palm Beach pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Prosecutors agreed to reduce the sentence if she admitted to shaking the child. Mejia refused.

DENNIS RHODEN - Charged with first-degree murder for the July 5, 1995, death of his girlfriend's 6-year-old son. An autopsy concluded the child suffered blunt abdominal trauma. A defense expert concluded the child suffered from acute asthma that could have contributed to his death. Prosecutors dropped the charge. Rhoden of suburban Lantana spent four months in jail. The medical examiner is no longer with the office.

ROSA SELF - Charged with first-degree murder for the April 3 death of a 3-year-old niece she was trying to adopt. Prosecutors claim the child drowned after Self hit her in the bathtub and she slid underwater. Defense experts found the child suffered from pneumonia and an inflamed heart, which could have contributed to her death. Self of Greenacres pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

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JUDGE: POLK COUNTY TO GET JOHN ZILE APPEAL
Sun-Sentinel
January 17, 1997
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer

Polk and Palm Beach counties argued on Thursday over which court system would handle John Zile's appeal of his first-degree murder conviction, even as his trial attorneys submitted an additional $86,000 in legal bills for his defense.

Palm Beach County tried to cap further legal fees on Thursday by successfully arguing that the Polk County Public Defender's Office should be assigned to his appeal because Zile was convicted in Polk.

Circuit Court Judge Roger Colton ruled that because the trial was moved to Polk County after Zile's first trial ended in a mistrial, all appellate work must be done within that jurisdiction
Palm Beach County's taxpayers have already spent $183,000 in legal fees and costs for Zile's defense in the September 1994 killing of his stepdaughter, Christina Holt, 7, in Singer Island.

The total is expected to reach $319,000, which does not include all the cost of moving the case to Bartow for the State Attorney's Office, the judge and other court staff.

The legal fees alone are $253,000, of which $107,000 has been paid to Zile's court-appointed attorneys, Craig Wilson and Ed O'Hara. A hearing is expected in February to decide whether the remaining bills are reasonable. The bills will be reviewed by other criminal defense lawyers.

The hours spent on the case are within reason considering the complexities, the defense lawyers said.

"I know at first blush it looks like a ridiculous amount of money, but when you really put the pencil to the paper, it really isn't," said Jack Goldberger, president of Palm Beach County's criminal defense attorneys' organization.

THEY ALL DIED YOUNG, BUT SPARE THE OTHERS
The Palm Beach Post
January 23, 1997

Two years ago, a grand jury investigating the deaths of four Palm Beach County children determined that the state had failed in its mission to protect kids from abuse.

The state had failed 7-year-old Christina Holt. And 10-year-old A.J. Schwarz. And 2-year-old Pauline Cone. And 6-year-old Tremaine Kerr. And 3-year-old Maya Self. And infants Dayton Boykin, Kayla Basante, Tiffany Greenfield and Charles Mejia.
All their cases now have been through the courts. Some of those responsible are in prison. In most cases, however, an adult knew the child was in trouble but didn't call for help - or the call went unheeded. Christina Holt was murdered during a beating by her stepfather, a beating neighbors heard but ignored. A.J. Schwarz's naked and bruised body was found floating in the family pool west of Lantana, and his stepmother was convicted of his murder. Social service workers had been visiting the family for months but found no reason to take A.J. from the home.

In addition to the grand jury, A.J.'s death gave prosecutors and police impetus to examine how children are protected. A task force found problems statewide. Most police and social workers focus on treating child abuse, rather than trying to prevent it, the panel wrote to the Legislature this month.

Recommendations include making it easier for aunts, uncles and grandparents to take children instead of sending them to a stranger for foster care. The task force also proposes increased subsidies for day care for kids who come from troubled families - those without homes or those who live with violent or drug-addicted parents. Social workers should be better trained to determine when violence, drug or alcohol abuse are problems at home. They should be paid more and should be required to pro ve their competence.

And it does little good, the panel wrote, to pay for more police officers if there aren't enough social workers to help a family stabilize after a father has beaten his wife in front of the children.

The panel also concluded that state agencies need to communicate. The Department of Children and Families, which oversees foster children, and the Department of Juvenile Justice, which deals with young criminals, work with many of the same children. But "their coordination is, at best, dismal."

Some recommendations are being carried out. In Palm Beach County, a "rapid response team" - a prosecutor, medical examiner, police officer, member of the sheriff's office juvenile division and social worker - goes to the scene when a child is found dead. Investigation begins immediately, not days later, as was typical a few years ago. More cases are being taken to trial.

Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, the Legislature's expert on child abuse, wants more money and accountability for child protective services. "We need early visits at home," she said, "after the child's born."

With much work and money, Florida has brought down its infant mortality rate. The state must pay no less attention to the child mortality rate.

ONCE AGAIN, SEARCH LEADS BACK HOME
Sun-Sentinel
February 19, 1997
Author: LUISA YANEZ Miami Bureau
Staff Writers Donna Pazdera and Tessie Borden contributed to this report.

It began with a frantic search in a shopping mall. A child allegedly snatched.

Then a sympathetic public joined in.

But within days, the investigation led - not to a child molester with a criminal past - but to the parents who were supposed to love and protect the child.

On Tuesday, that's what happened in the case of 4-year-old Kendia Lockhart. It was an eerie echo of another case: the 1994 murder of 7-year-old Christina Holt in Palm Beach County.

Holt's parents, Pauline and John Zile, eventually were sentenced to life in prison for the little girl's murder. Kendia's parents, Ken and Roselene Wilkinson, were arrested on charges of child abuse and neglect. They have not been accused of homicide
"Those are the kinds of stories that parents hear and it makes them hold a little tighter than usual to their children's hands," said J. Scott Briar, director of the Institute of Children and Families at Florida International University.

At first glance, there are some striking parallels between the Zile case and that of the Wilkinsons.

-- Like the Ziles, the Wilkinsons are a working class couple barely making it on one salary.

-- Both John Zile and Ken Wilkinson worked in restaurants, hopping from job to job.

-- The girls each lived in a home with a step-parent and were shuttled between relatives and parents.

-- Both girls were reported by their mothers to have been abducted from public places, Christina from the Swap Shop west of Fort Lauderdale, Kendia from the Mall at 163rd Street in north Dade County.

-- And, like the body thought to be that of Kendia, Christina's body was found buried in a shallow grave.

In the Zile case, the killer proved to be John Zile, the girl's stepfather. Ken Wilkinson, Kendia's biological father, is accused of abusing Kendia with a belt. He allegedly bit and pinched her younger half sister.

Roselene Wilkinson has admitted through her attorney that she fabricated the story about the abduction, but denied murdering her stepdaughter. Ken Wilkinson has yet to hire a lawyer.

Children's rights groups say hoaxes hurt their work in dealing with real abductions.

"What happens is that the searching public becomes more and more jaded about these reports of missing children," said Cathy Nahirny, case analyst with the Virginia-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "These fake reports put all of us and the police in a bad position."

Another similarity in the cases may be how they were cracked.

The Wilkinsons' story, like the Ziles', may have crumbled under evidence found in their home after the use of Luminol, a chemical spray used to illuminate traces of blood not visible to the naked eye.

"Whatever they found with the Luminol could have turned this from a missing person's case to a homicide case," said former Broward Sheriff's Detective Bob Foley. Foley is the crime lab specialist who discovered evidence of blood in the Ziles' Riviera Beach apartment.

Monday night, soon after Metro-Dade invited Broward crime technicians to help in the application of Luminol at the Wilkinson home, Ken Wilkinson gave police a statement.

Within hours, police found the body thought to be Kendia's.

IN LIEU OF FLOWERS, SEND MORE HELP
The Palm Beach Post
March 8, 1997
Author: Stebbins Jefferson

The morning news reports a child missing, sexually abused, otherwise brutalized or even killed. For weeks and months to come, we think about the case, wondering what kind of monsters imposed such cruelty on an innocent child.

Outraged, we speculate about the kind of punishment that should be meted out once the culprits have been identified. We usually settle on the same kind of atrocity that was committed upon the child.
Still hurting for youngsters who are allowed to die among us without the intervention of a responsible adults, we assuage our pain with a modern-day ritual born of the need to do something - anything - to affirm our own humanity and confirm that we value children.

In Palm Beach County, we left flowers and stuffed animals in the field where 7-year-old Christina Holt, tortured to death by her stepfather while her mother did nothing, was dumped in a shallow grave.

In Dade County, people who had never met 4-year-old Kendia Lockhart, the Bahamian girl who had come to Florida to visit her father and his wife for the Christmas holidays, left flowers in the field where her mutilated body was found.

And we must not forget the kids killed by guns in the hands of criminals, or other kids who foolishly believe, for some frivolous reason, that the use of a gun is justified.

Typically, we mark the spots where the victims fell with the same flowery tributes and toys. Similar scenes can be found across this state and throughout the nation. If a child survives abuse sufficiently horrific to make the news, we expiate our pain with a donation to some fund intended to pay medical bills or make the broken child's life easier in the future.

This done, we go on about our business, ignoring many others living on the cusp of catastrophe. Though those children may never make the news, they need our intervention to relieve the dehumanizing conditions that deform and prevent them from growing into productive citizens.

Understanding this need, Gov. Chiles challenged the Florida Legislature Tuesday to set aside party differences and attack the problems that confront our children. Turning the annual State of the State address into a "State of our Children" plea, he declared conditions to be "poor."

The governor asked Floridians to change that assessment by providing preventive care: $49 million more this year to shorten the waiting list for subsidized day care. If the Legislature provides this money, still only 70 percent of the known need would be met.

The governor wants to expand his Healthy Start program, which emphasizes prenatal and neonatal care. It has helped cut infant mortality rates 23 percent since 1991. To protect children whose families don't have health-care coverage, he asked for $15.5 million more for Healthy Kids, a nationally acclaimed insurance plan. He also wants more money for prevention of child abuse and for adoption of abused kids.

Like it or not, to relieve crowding and improve our schools we must accept new taxes. For example, a modest 2.5 percent state tax on basics such as water, sewage, garbage collection and cable TV would cost the average household a mere $24 a year. But that could generate sufficient money to back a $1.3 billion bond issue for new school construction statewide.

Some dismiss Gov. Chiles' embrace of children as first priority as a political ploy by a lame-duck governor intent on making a noble mark in history. I disagree. I believe he is one of us, the vast majority that grieves for the children who have died and for those still alive but suffering in a private hell because the public ignores them - except when they make the news in some shocking fashion.

It's not enough to buy flowers and toys for children after they have been destroyed. Better that we invest in constructing paths for youngsters' well-being before their spirits and bodies are broken.

Stebbins Jefferson is a columnist for The Palm Beach Post.

CROSSES, GIFTS MARK TRAGEDIES
BUT DO ROADSIDE MEMORIALS CREATE CLUTTER OR BRING RELIEF?
Sun-Sentinel
March 8, 1997
Author: TERENCE SHINE Staff Writer

It still is there, easily visible over the trash bin and bales of corrugated cardboard behind K mart.

The white cross rises about 12 feet. Beneath it rests a foot-high Jesus statue, a smiley-face pillow, potted plants and stuffed bunnies carefully wrapped in plastic to protect them from the elements. There is no name, only the words "Love Lives Here.
No, it doesn't.

There was no love involved the night John Zile bought a shovel, dug a hole fit for a child and threw dirt over the lifeless face of Christina Holt, 7.

Her body was pulled from that hideous grave in Tequesta more than two years ago, and still a monument stands, still people come to drop off gifts on holidays.

Will the shrine be there forever? And will people continue to mark their tragedies until the South Florida landscape is only a constant reminder of sickness, devastating mistakes and senseless killings?

Basic crosses are common in many countries, said Henry Petraki, professor of anthropology at Palm Beach Community College. "But America is taking an age-old ritual and putting their own spin on it, adding all the toppings," he said. "It's not unlike what they've done to pizza. We're making shrines quicker and more extravagant."

They are impromptu memorials - the public's immediate reaction to tragedy. Some are spontaneous, some are raised methodically, such as the Interstate 95 crosses that the state fears will turn highways into a national cemetery. Some blow away in a few weeks, others take on a permanence.

"It's gotten to the point today where the value behind the message has become irrelevant. People just create the shrines for a quick sense of relief," said Petraki, who has studied roadside memorials. "The gesture may be honorable but, my goodness, why would you memorialize someone by a Dumpster or where they were shot?"

Along Palmetto Park Road, the five crosses stabbed into the ground after five Boca Raton teens were killed still stand, more than a year after the tragic car wreck.

At Conniston Middle School in West Palm Beach, the words "Rest In Peace" are painted on the sidewalk where seventh-grader Johnpierre Kamel was slain for a $350 watch. Will the words ever go away?

Immediately after the battered body of 4-year-old Kendia Lockhart was discovered in a shallow grave near I-95 in north Dade County last month, dozens of people descended upon the site with flowers and stuffed animals, erecting a shrine like a community barn-raising.

"It seems bizarre to put them at a spot where a child was disgraced," said Sandra Cahill, a mother and political activist from Pompano Beach. "Maybe it eases people's guilt for the moment, but throwing flowers and teddy bears at the problem doesn't really help."

When the public could not reach the crash site of Valujet Flight 592, helicopters flew overhead to allow people to drop wreaths into the gaping hole in the Everglades. The state is planning a permanent tribute on Tamiami Trail.

"It will be a platform or monument to honor those who died," said Maj. Jim Ries of the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission.

But what honor is there in being the victim of incompetence?

Fort Lauderdale is dedicating a small beachside park to those people who were gunned down by disgruntled co-worker Clifton McCree in February 1996.

Nationally, the government building in Oklahoma City has been leveled and a permanent monument erected. But would the victims really have wanted their lives memorialized where some maniac bombed their work place with a U-Haul truck full of fertilizer?

There always will be two perspectives to these questions, just as there are with the smaller shrines and crosses.

Sally LeBauer of Delray Beach still shudders when she goes past the location on Congress Avenue where her son was killed in an automobile accident a year ago. She would never want the spot marked.

"Why memorialize a place of tragedy?" she asked. "It's better to remember our loved ones in celebration of their lives, not in their mangled deaths."

But Betty Downing, who lost her only son in a hit-and-run accident in June, has taken solace in the simple cross on Gateway Boulevard in Boynton Beach. Living nearby, she passes it almost every day. And when she sees that someone has left flowers or a heart for Valentine's Day, it reaffirms for her that people haven't forgotten her son.

"I don't see it being there forever," Downing said. "But for right now, today, it is serving a purpose in helping us heal."

Since the early 1980s, the founders of the Mothers Against Drunk Drivers chapter in Palm Beach County perpetuated the growth of roadside crosses by offering them to the families of drunken-driving victims. When people saw the memorials, they gave a significant message: Stop drinking and driving. But, through time, that message has been diluted since the crosses now are so numerous and represent deaths caused by everything from out-of-control semitrailers to speeding compact cars illegally crammed with passengers.

Shrines also have no boundaries. When two young girls were found deadlast year in Steven Ault's attic in Fort Lauderdale, the public came out in droves to place flowers and purge themselves.

"I'm not for the death penalty," Julia Arana of Plantation said at the time. "But if I had the chance, I'd fry him myself."

At Christina Holt's K mart grave, Kathleen Monaco of Palm Beach Gardens said, "The anger I feel and so many people feel, we want to rip these people apart."

"You can understand people's immediate anguish. But why don't we stop and say, `Maybe instead of adding another stuffed animal to a shrine it would be better if I made a donation to Kids in Distress or something,'" Cahill said.

This week, the public scurried to mark the spot where the five teens missing since 1979 were entombed in a submerged van for about 18 years. Publix bouquets now sit among rusted pipes, Budweiser cans and cigarette butts on the grassy banks off Boca Rio Road.

Red carnations float down the scummy canal.

IN COURT
The Palm Beach Post
April 8, 1997

WEST PALM BEACH - Murderer John Zile's court-appointed lead defense attorney will be paid a total of $140,730 in taxpayer money for handling Zile's case, Assistant County Attorney Dan Hyndman said Monday. A judge's order trimmed about $18,000 from attorney Craig Wilson's bill after Hyndman challenged some of Wilson's charges. Assuming the county pays about $27,600 in outstanding costs in the case, the county's total bill will be $334,746, making Zile's case the most expensive in the county's history, Hyndman said. Zile, 34, is serving a life sentence for the 1994 murder of his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Christina Holt. His first trial ended in a hung jury, and the case was beset by a number of other unforeseeable delays.

CONTEMPT CONVICTION IS UPHELD
The Palm Beach Post
June 12, 1997
Author: VAL ELLICOTT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

David Kidwell, the Miami Herald reporter who opted to serve jail time rather than testify about his jailhouse interview with murder defendant John Zile, lost a bid Wednesday to overturn his contempt conviction.

Judges on Florida's 4th District Court of Appeal rejected Kidwell's arguments that he was constitutionally shielded from having to testify for prosecutors at Zile's first-degree murder trial.
But the court also sent the issue on to the state Supreme Court, meaning Kidwell, 36, will not immediately return to jail to complete the 70-day sentence he received for his contempt conviction.

Wednesday's ruling was not a surprise, because the 4th DCA ruled in a separate case last year that reporters enjoy a constitutional protection against a trial subpoena only when they are protecting a confidential source.

"Obviously, we expected they would follow their prior decision," Kidwell's attorney, Sandy Bohrer, said Wednesday.

But Bohrer said he and Kidwell are "upbeat and optimistic" that Florida's Supreme Court will agree with the federal judge in Miami, Wilkie Ferguson Jr., who ordered Kidwell released from jail on Oct. 21, after he had served 15 days of his contempt sentence.

Ferguson noted that, under federal law, the government cannot subpoena a reporter to testify unless it shows that the reporter has information highly relevant to the case, that the need for that information outweighs the reporter's constitutional protection, and that the information is unavailable anywhere else.

In November, Zile was convicted - without Kidwell's testimony - of murdering his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Christina Holt. He is serving a life sentence with no chance for parole.

If the Supreme Court rules against Kidwell on the contempt issue, he plans to reargue his position to Ferguson and will ask the judge to make his earlier, preliminary ruling final.

JUDGES UPHOLD `HERALD' REPORTER'S 70-DAY SENTENCE
Sun-Sentinel
June 12, 1997
Author: SCOTT GOLD Staff Writer

Claiming the charge was necessary to "vindicate the power of the court," appellate judges on Wednesday upheld a 70-day sentence given a Miami Herald reporter who refused to testify about his jailhouse interview with an accused child killer.

"The criminal justice system would founder at the very beginning of the process if witnesses with relevant and unprivileged knowledge could decide when they shall be required to testify and the subjects about which they can permissibly be examined," the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled.

State prosecutors in Palm Beach County insisted they were not attempting to forge new legal ground when they demanded that reporter David Kidwell choose between testifying against John Zile and going to jail himself. Kidwell's testimony, they said, would have been relevant to their case because Zile's statements to the newspaper contradicted what he said on the witness stand.

"It's not like we were on some witch hunt," said Scott Cupp, chief prosecutor for the Crimes Against Children Unit of the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office. "This isn't about the First Amendment. This is about a murder case and a witness that we believe had relevant testimony. A witness is a witness is a witness."

The ruling, however, was surprisingly stern, leading some to question what rules Florida's reporters play by - and what privileges accompany the job title.

The court's decision, some fear, could erode the sharp division between the press and the government. At best, critics said, reporters could become the news themselves rather than objective observers. At worst, they could become agents of the law, not the public.

Jane Kirtley, executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Arlington, Va., offered this example: A television reporter who covers a riot could be placed in physical danger because rioters now know prosecutors could secure raw footage as evidence.

"It would be tantamount to police surveillance," Kirtley said. "That, quite frankly, is what will be the legacy of a decision like this. You are no longer an objective observer. You are an agent of the government if it serves their purpose."

In October 1996, Kidwell was sentenced to 70 days in jail and fined $500 by Circuit Court Judge Roger B. Colton after Kidwell refused to discuss his jailhouse interview with Zile about the death of Christina Holt, 7.

Zile was later convicted - without Kidwell's testimony - of beating his stepdaughter until she collapsed into convulsions and died. Zile and his wife, Pauline, tried to hide the killing by claiming the girl had been abducted at a flea market in Broward County.

Wednesday's ruling could force the Florida Supreme Court to set, once and for all, the parameters of the media's shield from testifying in court.

Florida has been in flux since 1990, when the Supreme Court ruled that reporters cannot be protected from testifying if they are an "eyewitness to a relevant event."

To media advocates, that decision meant that a reporter who actually witnesses a crime can claim no privilege and can be forced to testify. To others, apparently including the 4th District Court of Appeal, a "relevant event" can be any act of collecting information, including interviewing people, said Robert Rivas, a Boca Raton attorney representing The Reporters Committee.

The Supreme Court must settle the discrepency, Kirtley said.

"They're not going to be able to dodge this bullet," she said. "They are going to have to bite it.”